Booms to Failure

SCRIPT SAMPLE...Before we see the actual testing, I'd like to demonstrate with this model how we loaded the boom. I think it's important that we don't misunderstand how the loading was done. As you see, the load is sitting directly below the boom point. Our first operation would be to hoist the load. at this time, we would take a complete set of data. Our next operation would be to impose one percent of the hoisted load as a side load value. We would hold that load and then we would take another one percent side load so that we now have a total of two percent of the hoisted load as the side load value. Once that was done, we would release the side load, set the weight back down on the ground, add our next increment of loading , and we would repeat until the boom failed. Load and side load is realized. The machines have and always do see some side load, and we wanted to be sure to fail these booms under load and side load conditions...

...Lets go the the test site now and see the testing in progress. In preparation for the test we're measuring the initial eccentricity of each unsupported cord length, all unsupported cord lengths on each cord, all four cords on all sections we'll use in the test. In these scenes, we're measuring the wall thickness at mid-span of each unsupported cord length, all unsupported cord lengths on each cord, all cords in all sections we'll use in these tests...